Food-stamp changes to begin in Racine County

RACINE, Wis. (AP) – About 2,000 Racine County residents in the state’s FoodShare program will soon have to work or enroll in a worker-training program to continue receiving food stamps.

A Journal Times of Racine report says the change was part of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2013-15 budget. The new law takes effect statewide on Jan. 1 but it’s being rolled it out in Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties Tuesday to help work out any kinks.

There’s a federal requirement that healthy adults with no dependents do some kind of work for 20 hours per week to continue receiving food stamps. Wisconsin used to have a waiver exempting it from the requirement but the state eliminated it in 2013.

People in that category account for about 2,000 of the 17,000 Racine County residents in the FoodShare program.